


Noctua

by Telenovela



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: HQSS2014, M/M, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-28
Updated: 2014-12-28
Packaged: 2018-03-03 22:27:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2890247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telenovela/pseuds/Telenovela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Secret Santa gift for Ravient88 on tumblr!</p><p>Every night before official matches, Bokuto and Akaashi lie side by side on the roof of Akaashi's apartment building and watch the stars together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Noctua

**Author's Note:**

> Ravient gave the best SS prompts, and this basically wrote itself after the initial research. Please check out her art blog too, artravie.tumblr.com. She's very talented!!

It starts halfway through Akaashi’s first year.

Bokuto is tall and wild, with ridiculous hair and boundless enthusiasm. Everything about him is somehow bigger than anyone else Akaashi has known; broader shoulders, higher jumps, wider smile. He’s a constant movement in the corner of Akaashi’s vision, with a seemingly endless supply of energy. It’s not surprising, then, that Akaashi finds himself still in the school gym at almost 10pm the night before the first round of the Inter High preliminaries, long after the rest of the team has left for the night, throwing toss after toss to Bokuto’s waiting palm.

After one particularly good straight down the sideline, Akaashi finally thinks to ask, “What time does your last train home leave, Bokuto-san?”

Bokuto glances up at the clock on the gym wall, and lets out a squawk of surprise.

“Akaashi! I swear, I didn’t know we’d been here this long, I must have just lost track of time, and-“

“Bokuto-san?” Akaashi cuts him off, awaiting the inevitable answer.

“It left five minute ago.” Bokuto’s shoulders are starting to droop. He’s not yet an expert in dealing with Bokuto’s low moods, but Akaashi can already tell when one is about to set in and must be prevented at all costs. He mentally weighs up the pros and cons in his head, absent-mindedly rotating the ball he was holding between his palms.

“It’s about a 20 minute walk to my house. You could get a lift from there, so you won’t get in trouble for practising so late, or you can just stay over if you need to.”

Bokuto’s eyes widen.

“Is that really okay? I promise I’m a good houseguest, I’ll help with the washing up and everything!”

Akaashi fights back an eyeroll, just barely, and moves to put the ball back in the carriage.

“We should get going, then.”  
“Five more tosses?” Bokuto pouts, “Please?”

This time Akaashi lets it happen.

“Okay, Bokuto-san. But I’ll be counting.”

The walk to Akaashi’s family’s apartment building feels faster with Bokuto chattering and bouncing along at his side. Bokuto calls his mother to explain that he’s staying with a friend, and Akaashi’s own parents are thrilled that he has someone visiting for something other than homework. They set up the guest futon in his room, and Akaashi is seriously ready to get changed and go to sleep. Bokuto seems to have other ideas, though.

He fidgets incessantly as Akaashi tries to double-check that his bag is packed for the next day’s match, talking about everything and nothing, and looks like he’s seconds away from getting up and pacing the room as Akaashi goes to brush his teeth.

When he gets back from the bathroom, Bokuto is holding a blanket and grinning at him.

“Hey Akaashi, we can get onto the roof of your apartment building, right?”

Akaashi thinks that he probably should have protested more, really. He hasn’t been up to the roof since exploring when they’d very first moved into the apartment, but it’s the same unremarkable rooftop that he remembers from years ago. Bokuto spreads out the blanket and they lie down, side by side, looking up at the sky.

“Woah,” Bokuto lets out an impressed huff of breath, “Akaashi, look! Stars!”

Akaashi looks. They’re faded somewhat by the lights of the city below and around them, but he can still make out the hundreds of tiny pinpricks of light scattered across the sky. He gazes up at them, connecting them in his head, wishing he knew more constellations than just the Plough.

To his left, Bokuto is fidgeting again. Bluntness is probably the best approach here, he decides.

“You’re not very good at being still, Bokuto-san.”

Bokuto at least has the grace to look slightly embarrassed, turning his head and giving Akaashi a sheepish look.

“Sorry. I don’t normally sleep well the night before matches. And, uh,” he brings up a hand and runs it through the gelled spikes of his hair, “I totally forgot about it when you invited me to stay. And now I’m keeping you up, and dragging you out here in the middle of the night when you should be asleep too! It’s really unfair of me. I’m sorry.” The hand drops back down to his side, and Bokuto looks away again, back up at the sky.

Akaashi considers.

“You are keeping me up, I suppose. But I don’t mind too much. I didn’t know you could see stars from up here,” he bumps Bokuto gently, shoulder to shoulder, as he raises a hand to point. “Look, that’s the North Star. It’s the brightest one.”

Bokuto looks up, along the straight line of Akaashi’s outstretched arm, to where the star shines above him.

“Are there any owl constellations?” He asks, tentatively.

Akaashi has to hide a small laugh.

“There might be? I’ll have to look it up sometime. I don’t know much about stars, I’m afraid, aside from how to find north.”

They lie in silence for a moment, thinking about this.

“Well,” says Bokuto, “if there aren’t, there should be. Owls are nocturnal, right? They’re like, the guardians of the night. So it’d make sense that they’d be up in the sky at night, watching everything going on down here!”

Akaashi smiles at him, which broadens into a grin when Bokuto yawns massively.

“Come on, Bokuto-san, let’s sleep now. We can always come back up here another night.”

Bokuto grins up at him as he sits, eyes widening in surprised pleasure at the invitation. He tries to say something, but is interrupted by another yawn. Akaashi laughs as they climb to their feet, picking up the blanket and walking back downstairs.

\---

By the time Spring High preliminaries roll around, it’s become something of a tradition for them.

The nights are getting colder now, so they both wear their coats as they lie together in the darkness. Bokuto is quieter than usual today, fiddling with the zipper of his jacket, pulling it up and down and up and down again and again, over and over until Akaashi thinks it’s going to drive him mad.

As he’s coming to learn, bluntness is usually the best way to talk to Bokuto when he gets like this.

“You’re more nervous than usual tonight, Bokuto-san.”

Bokuto hums his agreement, but continues to gaze vacantly up at the sky, now twiddling the pull of his zip between his broad fingers. Akaashi looks up too, searching the myriad of stars for the pattern he recognises from the star charts, until he sees them, just visible above them.

He points them out to Bokuto, one by one, finger tracing the invisible lines connecting the patterns across the night.

“This line is the Hydra, like a snake. And there, below its body, is Felis, the cat. Above its middle is the crow, Corvus. And perching on its tail,” he turns to watch Bokuto’s reaction play out across his face, “is Noctua, the owl.”

Bokuto makes a joyful, shocked noise, and grins at Akaashi in delight.

“I knew there had to be an owl up there somewhere!” He half-shouts, looking back up to find the constellation again, trying to commit it to memory.

Akaashi smiles to himself, and decides to take a guess at what’s bothering Bokuto. It’s not like he’s exactly hard to read, anyway.

“The match tomorrow will be fine, Bokuto-san. We lost before, but we’ve grown stronger since then, and we won’t let it happen again. You make a great captain, and everyone trusts you. There’s no way you could let us down, even if you tried to. So you should stop worrying about it.”

He watches as Bokuto’s shoulders relax a little, some of the weight lifted, even as he continues to watch the stars.

“Thanks, Akaashi.” There’s a smile in his voice, calm for a moment, before the wild excitement returns. “I still can’t believe there’s an actual, official owl constellation!”

Akaashi makes a face.

“Well. Technically it’s not official any more. Astronomers stopped using it sometime in the 1920s I think.”

His view of the stars is temporarily blocked, as Bokuto sits up indignantly.

“What?! Akaashi, they can’t do that! Why do astronomers get to decide what does and doesn’t count as a constellation? Constellations are supposed to mean something, you can’t just decide one isn’t real any more!”

He’s still complaining, probably loudly enough to wake the neighbours, as they walk back down to bed, worries about the next day’s match forgotten.

\---

Towards the end of the following summer, Akaashi is bracing himself for the most nervous Bokuto fidgeting yet. Fukurodani’s first matches of the national tournament are tomorrow, and Bokuto will be leading the team as captain and ace. Even Akaashi is more nervous than usual.

Instead, Bokuto is lying back on their shared blanket, hands behind his head and one leg crossed over the other, demanding to be shown more constellations.

“Shouldn’t you be more scared than this, Bokuto-san?” He says, voicing his confusion.

Bokuto raises an eyebrow at him.

“Oho, scared? Why’s that? I’m about to become one of the top spikers in the country, what’s scary about that?!” He gives his usual broad, goofy smile, which turns into a laugh at the look on Akaashi’s face. “I’m going to be a nationally ranked spiker, and my team’s going to win nationals, and it’s all because of your toss, Akaashi!”

Akaashi can feel his cheeks heating up. _Why does he always have to say these embarrassing things without showing a hint of embarrassment himself, just stating them as if they were fact?_ It only gets worse when hands reach out to grab his, broad palms surrounding his own long fingers.

“I mean it, Akaashi!” The hands squeeze around his. “If it wasn’t for you throwing me perfect tosses, and being such a good vice captain, and helping me get back on my feet when things go wrong, I wouldn’t be anywhere near as great a spiker as I am! So I’m just really grateful to you, I guess, for being here with me!”

The summer air is much too hot and humid around him, as Akaashi tries desperately to avoid eye contact and slow his pounding heartbeat. _Why did Bokuto have to be so sincere?_

His hands are suddenly released as Bokuto points abruptly at the sky.

“A shooting star! Did you see it, Akaashi? We’re definitely going to win now!”

\---

It doesn’t feel like a year has passed, but somehow it’s already the night before the Spring High preliminaries again. Neither of them are really nervous by now; they’ve done this too many times to be scared any more. They lie there in happy quiet, shoulders and arms pressed together where they’ve subconsciously moved closer together.

Bokuto raises a hand to trace the pattern of the Hydra across the sky, running his finger down its imaginary tail to where Noctua perches.  
“We’re all together up there,” he says with a smile. “The owl and the cat and the crow, like us and Nekoma and Karasuno. I think it’s like a destiny thing, you know? We’ll definitely all get to nationals this time, I know it!”

“It’s our last chance, isn’t it?” Akaashi doesn’t mean to sound so maudlin, it just slips out before he can stop himself. “For you and Kuroo-san, anyway.” And it wouldn’t be the same team without you anyway, he thinks sadly.

There’s a hoot of laughter from next to him.

“I guess it is! But even after that, it isn’t the end. It’s…” Bokuto pauses for a moment, trying to find the words. “It’s like those astronomers deciding that the constellations weren’t official any more. Just because some old astronomers say they aren’t real, it doesn’t stop the owl and the crow and the cat from being up there and being together! And just because me and Kuroo are graduating or whatever, doesn’t mean I won’t still be around or that I won’t still be playing volleyball and thinking of you as my teammate and my setter and my vice captain!” He grins over at Akaashi again. “Things will change, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing!”

Akaashi thinks about it.

He thinks about Bokuto spiking his toss, and the way Bokuto talks about it, about him. He thinks about the stars, constantly burning, bound together by invisible connections which make them part of a bigger picture, more than they could ever mean alone. He thinks that, if Bokuto is moving forward, Akaashi had damn well better be able to keep up.

Then he leans across, arm beside Bokuto’s face supporting his weight, and presses a gentle kiss to his smiling mouth.

Bokuto hoots and cheers so loudly that one of the neighbours from the top floor really does come up to tell them off, but all Akaashi can do is laugh along in joy.

They go to leave, suitably chastised after the neighbour has left. Their hands are locked together and their shoulders bump as they walk toward the door, and the stars above them continue to burn, constant despite the movement of the earth and the glow of the city lights.

**Author's Note:**

> All the constellations named here are, incredibly, real. I'm wondering if it might be deliberate - if a snake themed school and a cup themed school turn up next, someone please tell Furudate we're onto him.
> 
> As always, I can be contacted on tumblr (midoususie) or twitter (@_greasepaint), and if you enjoyed this then it's probably worth you checking out bokuakathings.tumblr.com as well. It's rad, I promise.


End file.
